Hospitality in Greek Culture through Homer

Summary: The theme of hospitality is very important and prevalent in the Greek culture. Zeus considers it one of the most important customs a Greek can practice, and takes personal offense if hospitality is not shown.

Hospitality is one of the most important and heroic facets of Greek culture that needs to be covered when examining the story line of the Odyssey. There are many settings within the Odyssey that contain both positive and negative connotations of hospitality, and it is important to explore both sides and see how they relate to each other.

The most common situation or scene from the ancient Greek literature often appears to be the scenes in which the characters are in foreign lands, lost, or just plain weary. This results in the need for hospitality to be shown to the travelers. Hospitality was shown to wandering strangers and wayfarers for several reasons. The most obvious of these, was that the host may himself, one day, be in trouble and need to call upon the generosity and helpfulness of a different random stranger. This practice...